Selling Britain: The BBC German Service in the Post-War Period

The BBC German Service was established in September 1938, while Anglo-German relations were strained. Vike Martina Plock, who is the first supervisor for my project, has researched how the infrastructure of the BBC German Service was expanded during wartimes and how it aimed to achieve its primary political objective "to loosen Hitler's ideological hold over the German public" (Plock, The BBC German Service, Preface, p. viii).

To date, there has not been much academic research on the BBC German Service. The studies that have been conducted mostly focus on war times and broadcasts targeted at East Germany. While the programmes directed at the populations of adversary states have sparked more academic interest, it is important to note that the BBC German Service, which stayed in existence until 1999, also witnessed the forging of ever closer relations between the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany.

Under its first chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, the newly established Federal Republic aimed to regain trust on the stage of international politics by presenting itself as a reliable and trustworthy partner to its Western neighbours. "Westintegration" quickly became one of the main cornerstones of West German foreign policy.

While there was still apprehension towards Germany, the British governments of the post-war period generally saw the re-integration of Germany into a post-war political order on the European continent as a political necessity and the advances of the Adenauer government were generally welcomed.

My project aims to investigate how the process of "Westintegration" was portrayed in German Service broadcasts to the Federal Republic. An important question in this context is how the tone and function of German-language broadcasts adapted to the development of the two countries cautiously moving from enemies to allies in the context of the emerging Cold War.

During war times, the BBC had a very clear objective to instil a critical position towards their own government in the minds of its German audience. It will be interesting to investigate whether the changing relationship between the two countries allowed for the BBC to become more politically independent and to which degree it still functioned as an agent of British foreign policy.

Also, the democratisation of West Germany brought about the re-emergence of independent German media outlets. The cooperation and coordination of efforts between the BBC German Service and West German media outlets will also be a subject of my research.

To understand the role of the BBC German Service as a "cultural ambassador" can help advance the understanding of the origins and developments of the relations between the two countries in the post-war period and thereby the underlying structures behind the relationship between the two countries today.